R.I.P. New Frontier, Las Vegas Strip’s Second Hotel

Travel Blog  •  Jim Benning  •  11.13.07 | 12:01 PM ET

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Photo: AP

Las Vegas lost a piece of history early this morning. The New Frontier hotel-casino, which opened in 1942 and hosted Elvis Presley’s first performance in the city, was imploded to make way for a new megaresort scheduled to debut in 2011. The hotel’s destruction, along with that of the Stardust earlier this year, is part of a “dramatic, and expensive, facelift for the northern Strip,” writes the AP’s Ryan Nakashima. Real estate prices nearby have skyrocketed and several billion-dollar condo and resort developments—including one backed by Dubai World—are scheduled to open in the next several years.